Blair C. Armstrong

 Assistant Professor
 Department of Psychology & Department of Language Studies
 University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)

Cross-appointment:
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto


 Affiliated Researcher
 Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language (BCBL)


 Contact (e-mail preferred):

 E-mail: blair.armstrong@utoronto.ca

 Telephone: (1)-416-287-7146

   
 Mailing Address:
 University of Toronto Scarborough
 Department of Psychology
 1265 Military Trail
 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 M1C 1A4
 



Research Interests - Education - Publications - Published Software - Other Tools -
Teaching - Advising - Service  - In the News


Research Interests


My primary research interests relate to the cognitive and neural representations, processes, and learning mechanisms underlying word comprehension and semantic memory.  This work largely concerns developing theories of how ambiguous words are comprehended, the source of the similarities and differences between written and spoken word comprehension, how learning mechanisms lead to the emergence of cross-linguistic differences in lexical processing, and how newly-learned words are integrated into the lexical system.  Complementing this work, I pursue research into how decision and response systems engage the word comprehension and perceptual systems in different tasks.  My work focuses on developing explicit mechanistic accounts of these cognitive systems.  This work is informed by tightly coordinated computational modeling using biologically-plausible connectionist networks and by empirical investigations using a range of behavioral and electrophysiological techniques.  I am also interested in how computational algorithms can improve experimental methodologies such as stimulus selection, speech onset detection, and data analysis.



CV Highlights

Education
2012 PhD, Psychology, Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University

Dissertation: The Temporal Dynamics of Word Comprehension and Response Selection: Computational and Behavioral Studies

Advisor: Dr. David Plaut
Committee: Dr. Marlene Behrmann, Dr. Brian MacWhinney, Dr. Natasha Tokowicz

2012 Graduate Training Certificate, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), Carnegie Mellon University
2010 MS, Psychology, Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University

Advisor: Dr. David Plaut
Committee: Dr. Marlene Behrmann, Dr. Brian MacWhinney
2007 MA, Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto

Dissertation: Comprehending Ambiguous Words: Computational and Empirical Investigations

Advisor: Dr. David Plaut
Co-advisor: Dr. Steve Joordens
2006 HBSc, Conferred with High Distinction, Psychology Specialist Program, University of Toronto Scarborough

Psychology Honours Thesis:   
Title: Accounting for Category-specific Semantic Deficits: A Computational Implementation of Conceptual Topography Theory
Advisor:  Dr. George Cree

Neuroscience Honours Thesis:
Title: The Golden Ratio: A Search for the Mathematical and Neural Basis of Beauty
Advisors: Dr. Gerald Cupchik and Dr. Ted Petit


Publications



Peer-reviewed Articles:

Li, J. & Armstrong, B.C. (2024). Probing the Representational Structure of Regular Polysemy via Sense Analogy Questions: Insights from Contextual Word Vectors. Cognitive Science, 48: e13416. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13416

Lopez Zunini, R., Baart, M., Samuel, A. G., & Armstrong, B. C. (2022).  Lexico-semantic access and audiovisual integration in the aging brain: Insights from mixed-effects regresion analyses of event-related potentials.  Neuropsychologia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108107

Beekhuizen, B., Armstrong, B. C., & Stevenson, S. (2021).  Probing lexical ambiguity: Word vectors encode number and relatedness of senses.  Cognitive Science, 45(5), e12943.  https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12943

Lopez Zunini, R., Baart, M., Samuel, A. G., & Armstrong, B. C. (2020).  Lexical access versus lexical decision processes for auditory, visual, and audiovisual items: Insights from behavioral and neural measures. Neuropsychologia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107305

Frost, R., Armstrong, B. C., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019).  Statistical learning research: A critical review and possible new directions.  Psychological Bulletin, 145(12), 1128–1153. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000210
 
Ling, S., Lee, A. C. H., Armstrong, B. C., & Nestor, A. (2019).  How are visual words represented?  Insights from EEG-based visual word decoding, feature derivation and image reconstruction.  Human Brain Mapping. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24757

Siegelman, N., Bogaerts, L., Armstrong, B. C., & Frost, R. (2019).  What exactly is learned in visual statistical learning?  Insights from Bayesian modeling.  Cognition.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.014

Rice, C. A., Beekhuizen, B., Dubrovsky, V., Stevenson, S., & Armstrong, B. C. (2018).  A comparison of homonym meaning frequency estimates derived from movie and television subtitles, free association, and explicit ratings.  Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1107-7

Baart, M., Armstrong, B. C., Martin, C., Frost, R., & Carreiras, M. (2017).  Cross-modal noise compensation in audiovisual words.  Scientific Reports, 7(42055), http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep42055.  

Armstrong, B. C., Dumay, N., Kim, W., & Pitt, M. A. (2017).  Generalization from newly learned words reveals structural properties of the human reading system.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(2), 227-249.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000257

Roux, F.*, Armstrong, B. C.*, & Carreiras, M. (2016).  Chronset: An automated tool for detecting speech onset.  Behavior Research Methods.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0830-1  * = equal contribution.

Armstrong, B. C., Frost, R., & Christiansen, M. H. (2017).  The Long Road of Statistical Learning Research: Past, Present, and Future.  Special issue on New Frontiers for Statistical Learning in the Cognitive Sciences [B. C. Armstrong, R. Frost, & M. H. Christiansen, Eds.], Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences, 372(1711). http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0047

Armstrong, B. C., & Plaut, D. C. (2016).  Disparate semantic ambiguity effects from semantic processing dynamics rather than qualitative task differences.  Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, 1(7), 1-27.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2016.1171366

Armstrong, B. C., Zugarramurdi, C., Alvaro, C., Valle Lisboa, J., & Plaut, D. C. (2015).  Relative meaning frequencies for 578 homonyms in two Spanish dialects: A cross-linguistic extension of the English eDom norms.  Behavior Research Methods,  48(3), 950-962.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0639-3

Armstrong, B. C., Ruiz-Blondet, M., Khalifian, N., Jin, Zanpeng, J., Kurtz, K. J., Laszlo, S. (2015). Brainprint: Assessing the uniqueness, collectability, and permanence of a novel method for ERP biometrics.  Neurocomputing, 166, 59-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2015.04.025  **Subsequently selected for inclusion in the 2015 Virtual Special Issue Celebrating the Breadth of Biometrics Research 2015, which highlights select articles published across a number of Elsevier journals. **

Frost, R., Armstrong, B. C., Seigelman, N., Christiansen, M. H.  (2015).  Domain generality versus modality specificity: The paradox of statistical learning.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 117-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.12.010.  Invited peer-reviewed contribution. 

Lerner, I., Armstrong, B. C., & Frost, R.  (2014).  What can we learn from learning models about sensitivity to letter-order in visual word recognition?  Journal of Memory and Language, 77, 40-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2014.09.002

Laszlo, S., & Armstrong, B. C. (2014).  Applying the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials to individual units in simulation of temporally extended ERP reading data.  Brain & Language, 132, 22-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2014.03.002  

Carreiras, M., Armstrong, B. C., Perea, M., & Frost, R. (2014).  The What, When, Where, and How of Visual Word Recognition.   Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(2), 90-98.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.11.005  Invited peer-reviewed contribution.   ** The article received the 2014 Best Neuroscience Publication Award from the Spanish Society of Experimental Psychology (SEPEX) **

Armstrong, B.C., Tokowicz, N., & Plaut, D.C. (2012).  eDom: Norming software and relative meaning frequency norms for 544 homonyms.  Behavioral Research Methods, 44(4), 1015-1027. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0199-8

Armstrong, B.C., Watson, C.E., & Plaut, D.C. (2012).  SOS! An algorithm and software for the Stochastic Optimization of Stimuli.  Behavior Research Methods, 44(3),  675-705. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0182-9

Armstrong, B.C., LeBoutillier, J.C., & Petit, T.L. (2012).  Ultrastructural synaptic changes associated with Neurofibromatosis Type 1: Quantitative analysis of hippocampal region CA1 in a Nf1+/- mouse model. Synapse, 66(3), 246-255.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/syn.21507

Connor, S., Williams P. T., Armstrong, B., Petit, T. L., Ivanco, T. L., Weeks, A. C. (2006). Long-term potentiation is associated with changes in synaptic ultrastructure in the rat neocortex. Synapse, 59(6), 378-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/syn.20248



Peer-reviewed Conference Papers (* = presenter;  _____ = trainee):

Li, J.*, & Armstrong, B. C. (2024). Issues of Generalization from Unreliable or Unrepresentative Psycholinguistic Stimuli: A Case Study on Lexical Ambiguity. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 

Li, J.*, & Armstrong, B. C. (2023). Probing the Representational Structure of Regular Polysemy in a Contextual Word Embedding Model via Sense Analogy Questions. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 

Li, J., & Armstrong, B. C. (2023). Probing the Representational Structure of Regular Polysemy in a Contextual Word Embedding Model via Sense Analogy Questions. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

McCann, R., Armstrong, B. C., Reynolds, M., & Besner, D. (2022).  New analyses of lexical influences on the processing of pseudo-homophones in the lexical decision task: Still more challenges for models of visual word recognition.   Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Miller, I. D., Dumay, N. Pitt, M., Lam, B., & Armstrong, B. C. (2020).  Context variability promotes generalization in reading aloud: Insight from a neural network simulation.  Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Alhama, R. G.*, Siegelman, N., Frost, R., & Armstrong, B. C. (2019).  The role of information in visual word recognition: A perceptually-constrained connectionist account.  Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the cognitive Science Society.  Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

Mo, D. & Armstrong, B. C. (2019).  Statistical learning of conjunctive probabilities.   Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.  Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Beekhuizen, B.*, Milic, S., Armstrong, B. C., & Stevenson, S.  (2018).  What Company Do Semantically Ambiguous Words Keep? Insights from Distributional Word Vectors.  Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.  Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  

Medeiros, J.*, & Armstrong, B. C.* (2017).  Semantic ambiguity effects: A matter of time?  Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.  Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  

Ruiz-Blondet, M.*, Khalifian, N., Armstrong, B. C., Jin, Zanpeng, J., Kurtz, K. J., Laszlo, S. (2014). Brainprint: Identifying unique features of neural activity with machine learning.   Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 827-832). Mahwah, NH: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  

Armstrong, B. C.*, & Plaut, D. C. (2013).  Simulating overall and trial-by-trial effects in response selection with a biologically-plausible connectionist network.  In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 139-144). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 

Laszlo, S., & Armstrong, B. C.* (2013).  Applying the dynamics of post-synaptic potentials to individual units in simulation of temporally extended ERP reading data.  In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2826-2831).  Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 

Armstrong, B. C.* & Plaut, D. C. (2011). Inducing homonymy effects via stimulus quality and (not) nonword difficulty: Implications for models of semantic ambiguity and word recognition. In L. Carlson, C. Holscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2223-2228).  Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 

Armstrong, B. C.*, Joordens, S., & Plaut, D. C. (2009). Yoked criteria shifts in decision system adaptation: Computational and behavioral investigations.  In N.A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2130-2135).  Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 

MacInnes, W. J.*, Armstrong, B. C., Pare, D., Cree, G. S., & Joordens, S. (2009). Everyone’s a critic: Memory models and uses for an artificial Turing judge.   In B. Goertzel, M. Hutter, & P. Hitzler (Eds.) Proceedings of the Second Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (pp. 132-137).  Paris, France: Atlantic Press.   ** Second runner up for Kurzweil Best Artificial General Intelligence Paper at AGI 2009 **

Armstrong, B. C.*, & Plaut, D. C. (2008).  Settling dynamics in distributed networks explain task differences in semantic ambiguity effects: Computational and behavioral evidence.  In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.) Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 273-278).  Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 



Book Chapters:

Carreiras, M., Armstrong, B. C., & Dunabeitia, J. A. (2018).  Reading.  Invited chapter to appear in The Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Fourth Edition [J. Wixted, Ed.].

Cree, G. S., & Armstrong, B. (2012). Computational models of semantic memory.  In Spivey, M., McRae, K. & Joanisse, M. (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Psycholinguistics (pp. 259-282).  New York: Cambridge University Press.

Watson, C. E., Armstrong, B. C., & Plaut, D. C. (2012). Connectionist modeling of neuropsychological deficits in semantics, language, and reading.  In M. Faust (Ed.), The Handbook of the Neuropsychology of Language (pp. 103-124). New York: Wiley-Blackwell. 


Peer-reviewed Articles in Undergraduate Journals

Das, B., Meltzer, J. A., & Armstrong, B. C. (2021).  Quantitative Assessment of Handedness and Cerebral Lateralization.  Journal of Natural Sciences, 2(1).  https://doi.org/10.33137/jns.v2i1.34660


Doctoral Dissertation:

Armstrong, B. C. (2012).  The Temporal Dynamics of Word Comprehension and Response Selection: Computational and Behavioral Studies.  Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University.  


Conference Proceedings:

S. Denison., M. Mack, Y. Xu, & B.C. Armstrong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (2020). Cognitive Science Society.

Special Issues:

Guest Editor for a theme issue on New Frontiers for Statistical Learning in the Cognitive Sciences [B. C. Armstrong, R. Frost, M. H. Christiansen, Eds.].  (2017).  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/new-frontiers-statistical-learning-cognitive-sciences
http://dx.doi.10.1098/rstb.2016.0047



Software


SOS:
  • A software package for the Stochastic Optimization of Stimuli (developed with Christine Watson and David Plaut)
  • Related article published in Behavior Research Methods
  • Software and additional information available online at http://sos.cnbc.cmu.edu

eDom
  • An automated tool for collecting Relative Meaning Frequency ratings for homonyms (i.e., electronic Dominance ratings) based on dictionary (and participant-supplemented) definitions (developed with Natasha Tokowicz and David Plaut; an extension to different Spanish dialects was developed with Camila Zugarramurdi, Álvaro Cabana, Juan Valle Lisboa, and David Plaut)
  • Related articles and norms for American English and for two dialects of Spanish published in Behavior Research Methods
  • Software and norms available online at http://edom.cnbc.cmu.edu or www.bcbl.eu/databases/edom

Chronset: 
  • An automated tool for detecting speech onset, developed with Frédéric Roux and Manuel Carreiras 
  • Related article published in Behavior Research Methods
  • This tool detects speech onset in a sound recording automatically, with near optimal precision as compared to multiple human ratings of speech onset based on a waveform and a spectrogram.  
  • Standalone and online version of the software available at http://www.bcbl.eu/databases/chronset




Teaching


Courses Taught:

University of Toronto Scarborough (2017--):
2017-- PLIC55: Psycholinguistics
2017-- PSYC59: Cognitive Neuroscience of Language
2018-- LINB19: Computers in Linguistics


BCBL (2012-2016):
2015 Scientific Basics, Section II: Scientific Writing [coordinated with Dr. C. Martin (Section I: Presentations) & Dr. J. Andres Hernandez (Section III: Basic Programming)].
2012-2016 Quantitative Methods, Section III: Regression [coordinated with Martijn Baart (Section I: Basic Statistical Concepts) and Arthur Samuel (Section II: Analysis of Variance)]



Advising



Postdoctoral:
Name Date Project
Rocío A. López-Zunini 2016-- Computational and EEG investigations of age-related changes in visual and auditory word recognition (co-supervisor: Dr. A Samuel)


Graduate:
Name Degree Date Title
Di Mo PhD

Joyse Medeiros PhD
[BCBL & UPV]		 Dec. 2019 The Time-course of Semantic Ambiguity:
Behavioural and Electroencephalographic Investigations.  Graduated Cum Laude, con Premio Extraordinario.
Pedro Margolles Master
[BCBL & UPV]		 Sept. 2016 On-line Orthographic and Phonological Interactions during an Audiovisual Matching Task (co-supervisor: Dr. M. Baart)
Jane Aristia Master
[BCBL & UPV]		 Sept. 2015 Adaptive Decision Making: Evidence from Feedback
Elma Barreiro Abad Master
[BCBL & UPV]		 Sept. 2014 Auditory and Visual Word Comprehension:
A Comparative Study using a Lexical Decision Task
(co-supervisor: Dr. A. Samuel)


Service:
  • Co-Chair, Cognitive Science Society 2020 Annual meeting, Toronto, Canada
  • Program Committee Member, Fifth Implicit Learning Seminar (2016), Lancaster, UK
  • Co-Organizer & Scientific Committee Member, Interdisciplinary Advances in Statistical Learning Conference, San Sebastian (2015, 2017, 2019), Spain
  • Program Committee Member, 2016 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
  • Program Committee Member, 2015 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Grant Reviewing:
European Research Commission (ERC)
National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)


Editorial Work:
Guest Editor for a theme issue on New Frontiers for Statistical Learning in the Cognitive Sciences [B. C. Armstrong, R. Frost, M. H. Christiansen, Eds.].  (2017).  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences. http://dx.doi.10.1098/rstb.2016.0047 

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 2019-

Ad hoc reviewer for:

Cognitive Science
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Journal of Memory & Language
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
Behavior Research Methods
Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
Applied Psycholinguistics
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Cognition
Bilingualism: Language & Cognition
Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Psychological Review
Topics in Cognitive Science
Cognitive Psychology
Journal of Cognition and Development
Experimental Psychology
Visual Cognition
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Cognitive Processing
Scientific Reports
Cortex
The Journal of Open Psychology Data
Frontiers in Psychology
Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society Annual Meetings
Selected Proceedings of the EuroAsianPacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science [EAPCogSci]
Selected Proceedings of the Second Language Research Forum [SLRF]
Selected Proceedings of the Workshop on Infant Language Development [WILD]

In the News

Brainprint: Identifying Individuals Based on the Neural Correlates of Reading Processes

A series of news articles focused on my collaborative work with Professor Sarah Laszlo's research group at SUNY Binghamton, in which we studied how different classification methods can be used to uniquely identify individuals based on ERPs collected during reading.  A sample of these articles follows:


Ambiguous Word Comprehension

A press release by GUK (April, 2014) focused on my work in computational cognitive neuroscience and ambiguous word comprehension.

LINK (in Spanish): http://guk.es/sala-de-prensa/neurociencia-para-que-los-ordenadores-entiendan-la-ironia-del-lenguaje-humano/

Archived Copy


An artificial Judge for the Turing Test / Corpus-based Lexical-semantic knowledge

An article in h+ Magazine (March, 2009) featured work that  I co-authored and that was related to the development of an Artificial Critic for Humanness based on word co-occurrence statistics (MacInnes, Armstrong, et al. 2009; 2nd runner up for the Kurzweil prize at the 2009 Artificial General Intelligence Conference).  

LINK: http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/future-machine-intelligence

Archived Copy

















Blair Armstrong, 2011-